17. According as circumstances are favorable,
one should modify one's plans.
18. All warfare is based on deception.
19. Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable;
when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we
are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away;
when far away, we must make him believe we are near.
20. Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder,
and crush him.
-
The Art of War,
Sun Tzu.
According to the
Wikepedia definition,
Misdirection is a form of deception, where one feints in a particular course, and then exploits the misled pursuer's mistake to escape, or remain undetected.
It would not require political acumen or perspicuity to recognize that the Bush administration, with its shadow government of neocon advisors and planners use the art of misdirection as their
deux ex machina to resolve issues that raise inquiry and to initiate actions that can not be easily undone. The day-to-day politics of this administration relies heavily on the shell game to misdirect a complacent (if not complicit) mainstream media into looking at the wrong story at the wrong time or the wrong aspect of the story or at a different story entirely, while the truth stealthily slips into oblivion. With the sudden nomination of John (or as
Billmon calls him Bob) Roberts for the SCOTUS, the entire vacuous coterie of television prompter readers have been misdirected to the SCOTUS premature evacuation and away from the State Department Memo dated July 7, 2003, that informed top administration officials that the wife of ex-diplomat and Bush critic Joseph Wilson was a CIA agent, and that was passed around at the WH and on Air Force One resulting eventually (as in 7 days later) in the public revelation that Joe Wilson’s wife was (is) Valerie Plame, a CIA agent assigned to WMD.
I would direct readers to peruse
Justin Raimondo’s article on Antiwar.com, and in particular to overly peruse these paragraphs:
The main thrust of this investigation – as well as parallel investigations into similar breaches of U.S. national security in recent days – is aimed at the "disinformation campaign" described in that footnote to the Senate intelligence report. Who ran that campaign, and on whose behalf – what government officials were in on it, and what help, if any, did they receive from foreign intelligence agencies? These are all questions, I believe, to which Fitzgerald is seeking answers. The Plame investigation is the result of the FBI's counterintelligence efforts, which have apparently uncovered the roots of the "disinformation campaign" referred to in the Senate report. The esteemed senators on the intelligence committee were too cowardly to dig too deeply into it, but "Bulldog" Fitzgerald is kicking up a lot of dirt.
What the outing of CIA agent Plame has to do with all this is simple: whoever was out to get Wilson as a Mama's boy with a partisan agenda was also pushing the Niger uranium story. They knew its falsity, and what's more, they knew its provenance – and yet they ushered it, unexamined, through the intelligence-vetting process. The outing of Plame, which was part of the cover-up, wasn't the only blow aimed at U.S. intelligence capabilities by this group: whoever outed Plame also injected corrupted intelligence into the information stream that eventually washed up on the president's desk. Somebody burned the White House, and badly: that's why the Fitzgerald investigation has been allowed to proceed, and why it involves a lot more than violation of an obscure statute that has only been successfully prosecuted once.
Luckily, for our sake, Fitzgerald is unlikely to be misdirected by the mainstream media’s ADD. However, the diabolical Bush Cabal is advancing other agendas simultaneously. The Patriot Act II, with all of the sundown clause provisions of Act I in place, is being pushed through both hoses of Congress with alacrity and without adequate scrutiny. Let’s do a bit of refresher reading now to get an immediate handle and minimal course of action, i.e. writing to your elected Congressional representatives. First I will refer you to my own views on the subject here. And then I would refer you to the following articles:
•
EFF Analysis of "Patriot II,"
•
Patriot Act II Resurrected?
•
Patriot Act: To find right balance, keep debate wide open
•
Safe and Free
There are obviously hundreds of articles on the subject; Google your own. But, by all means pay attention and let your voice be heard. The Patriot Act is as serious as it gets. At least read
this article, which gives as much of an overview as you will need.
While Blair is using Bush’s 9/11 rhetoric to explain the 7/7 London bombings to his country (they hate our freedom and way of life palaver),
Wolcott points out some glaring omissions by US in the U.S. and bUSh in the U.K.; ouch!
Iraq:
•
9 Dismissed From Tribunal Trying Saddam
•
Hussein Tribunal Shaken by Chalabi's Bid to Replace Staff
•
Plan Called for Covert Aid in Iraq Vote
•
GET OUT THE VOTE
•
Tally puts civilian toll at 25,000
•
Draft of Iraq charter looks to Islam
Guantanamo:
•
Ruling Lets U.S. Restart Trials at Guantánamo
(
John G. Roberts was one of the three judges on the panel that handed Bush this significant victory)
Bush’s nomination of John Roberts to the U.S. Supreme Court is, of course, a salient issue that deserves the intense scrutiny that it certainly will receive. However, public discourse needs to rise to the occasion, and we need to stay focused on many issues that simultaneously affect the immediate health and character of the republic. Ten minutes of reading, let alone listening especially to those who are endorsing his candidacy, will give you a fairly accurate idea of the potential damage this man can do as a lifelong Justice of the Supreme Court.
Fitzgerald…the State Department Memo and its ramifications…Patriot Act debate…IRAQ…
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